Reference

Stablecoin glossary

Terms that come up across the site, written so a non-specialist can read them in one pass. Each definition links out to the report where we use the term in context.

A

Algorithmic stablecoin: A token that tries to hold a one-dollar peg without holding one dollar of off-chain collateral per coin. Supply is expanded or contracted by code, often using a second "share" token. The Terra USD design that failed in May 2022 is the most famous example. See the primer.
Attestation: A short report from an accounting firm confirming that an issuer held certain assets on a specific date. Not the same as a full audit. Tether publishes a quarterly attestation by BDO. Circle publishes a monthly attestation by Deloitte. An attestation tells you a snapshot was checked; it does not commit the firm to a broader opinion on the company's controls.
Audit (financial): A formal opinion from an accounting firm covering the books over a defined period, including the company's internal controls and any material misstatements. As of mid-2026, none of USDT, USDC, FDUSD, TUSD or DAI publish a full financial audit at the same cadence as listed banks. Attestations are common; full audits are not.

B–C

Binance: The largest spot crypto exchange by trading volume. Holds the deepest USDT order book on most pairs. StableDesk is a Binance referral programme; full disclosure.
BUSD: A US-regulated dollar stablecoin issued by Paxos under contract with Binance. NYDFS ordered Paxos to stop minting new BUSD in February 2023. Existing BUSD wound down over about 18 months; the token is no longer the working dollar inside Binance.
CFTC: US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Has settled enforcement actions against both Tether (2021) and Binance (2023) related to derivatives and reporting.
Circle: Issuer of USDC. Headquartered in the US, regulated as a money transmitter by NY DFS and other state regulators. Listed on the NYSE under CRCL in 2024.
Cross-chain bridge: A protocol that moves a token between blockchains. Stablecoins use bridges to circulate between Ethereum, Tron, Solana, BNB Chain and others. Bridges have historically been the single largest target for crypto exploits: Ronin, Wormhole, Nomad, Multichain. See the cross-chain report on the Chinese edition for the long version.

D–E

DAI: The largest crypto-collateralised stablecoin alive, issued by MakerDAO (now Sky). Backed by a mix of USDC, ETH and real-world assets. From August 2024, MakerDAO rebranded the same token line as USDS, with DAI remaining available.
Depeg: An episode where a stablecoin price moves away from the value it is meant to track. The size and duration vary. USDC's SVB weekend depeg in March 2023 lasted about 48 hours; UST's depeg in May 2022 was permanent.
EURC: Circle's euro-referenced stablecoin. Compliance positioning shifted significantly after MiCA came into force in mid-2024.

F–H

FCA: UK Financial Conduct Authority. Maintains the UK crypto asset registration regime and supervises payment-services rules that touch fiat on-ramps.
FDUSD: First Digital USD, issued by First Digital Labs under Hong Kong trust law. Listed in Binance's market structure when BUSD wound down. Hong Kong's stablecoin ordinance (in force August 1, 2025) created a domestic licensing requirement; FDUSD's issuer was not in the first batch of licences granted in April 2026.
FinCEN: US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Regulates money services businesses (MSBs) and runs the SARs reporting regime that touches large stablecoin movements.
FOMC liquidity: Not a stablecoin term but worth knowing. US short-term interest rates set by the Federal Reserve drive most of the income on T-bill-backed reserves (USDT, USDC, FDUSD, PYUSD). When rates fall, issuer revenue falls; when rates rise, it rises.
HKMA: Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Runs the Hong Kong stablecoin licensing regime that came into force in 2025.

I–N

Issuer: The legal entity that mints a stablecoin. For USDT this is Tether Limited. For USDC it is Circle Internet Financial. For FDUSD it is First Digital Labs.
Liquidity: How easily you can swap a coin for cash or for another asset at a fair price. For USDT, liquidity is deepest on Binance and OKX spot books. For USDC, deepest on Coinbase and Kraken. The depth gap matters during a depeg, when forced selling drains the thinner side first.
MAS: Monetary Authority of Singapore. Runs the Payment Services Act regime that licenses major digital payment token services.
MiCA: Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. The EU framework that came fully into force in mid-2024. MiCA's e-money-token rules are why several EU venues phased USDT spot pairs out and EURC stepped up.
NYAG: New York Attorney General. Settled an 18.5 million dollar action against Bitfinex and Tether in February 2021. The order produced the first detailed Tether reserve breakdown to reach the public.
NY DFS: New York Department of Financial Services. Issues BitLicences and supervises USDC, PYUSD and (formerly) BUSD at the state level.

O–R

OFAC: US Office of Foreign Assets Control. Maintains the sanctions list. USDT and USDC freezing of sanctioned addresses operates within OFAC requirements.
Peg: The reference value a stablecoin promises to track. For USDT, USDC, DAI, FDUSD and PYUSD: one US dollar. For EURC: one euro. The peg is held by a combination of arbitrage, redemption mechanics and (in the case of fiat-backed coins) the issuer's reserves.
Proof of Reserves (PoR): An exchange's published snapshot of customer assets held against on-chain wallets. Useful but limited: a snapshot does not prove that the assets were not borrowed for the day. PoR is not equivalent to a financial audit.
Redemption: The right to send a stablecoin back to its issuer in exchange for dollars. Circle accepts redemptions from approved institutional clients. Tether accepts redemptions over a minimum threshold. Retail holders almost always exit through an exchange instead.
RWA: Real-world assets. In the stablecoin context: T-bills, money-market funds, repurchase agreements and similar holdings that sit in the reserve. DAI's RWA exposure has grown significantly under Sky.

S–U

SEC: US Securities and Exchange Commission. Has examined whether specific stablecoins qualify as securities and taken enforcement actions touching the category, including the BUSD matter.
SFC: Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong. Runs the VATP (virtual asset trading platform) licensing regime.
Stablecoin: A token designed to hold a stable price reference (usually one US dollar). Four broad families: fiat-backed, crypto-collateralised, algorithmic, commodity-backed. See the primer.
SVB: Silicon Valley Bank. Failed in March 2023. Held 3.3 billion dollars of Circle's USDC reserves at the time of failure; the freeze caused the USDC weekend depeg.
Tether: Issuer of USDT. Headquartered in the British Virgin Islands. Reserve composition disclosed quarterly via BDO attestation.
USDC: Circle's dollar stablecoin. NY DFS-regulated at the state level in the US. Roughly 60 billion supply as of mid-2026.
USDT: Tether's dollar stablecoin. The largest stablecoin by supply (roughly 150 billion as of mid-2026) and the dominant unit on most CEX spot books.

V–Z

VATP: Virtual asset trading platform. Hong Kong SFC licence category covering retail-facing crypto exchanges.
Wash trade: Trading with yourself to inflate apparent volume. Reported volumes on some smaller exchanges include wash activity. StableDesk uses Kaiko-style or DeFiLlama-aggregated venue weighting where possible.
Yield: Income earned by lending or staking a stablecoin. USDT and USDC sit in lending markets like Aave and Compound, in Curve pools, in CEX flexible savings products and in newer T-bill-linked vaults. Yields vary with rates and demand; nothing here is risk-free.

Glossary edited by Wen Lu · fact-checked by Heng Zhou · last revised 2026-05-19